Introducing the Incremental Revival Journal
You can find the most recent, and future versions of the Incremental Revival Journal here.
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What began as an idea a couple years ago is now a reality. And, Lord willing, it’s only the very beginning.
Our hope is to produce a resource created by the members of Grace Rancho for the members of Grace Rancho. It can sometimes be hard for Christians, especially in our information glutted society, to know who they can trust. Which authors are trustworthy? What podcasts are recommended? Which ministries are worth following? There is so much out there and the overload can be overwhelming.
That’s part of the story of how we came up with the idea of creating a regular journal. We figured it might be worth creating our own content for our people. We could print a few every year, choose relevant topics that would be helpful for our church, and enlist some elders, staff, and members to write about it. The more the idea percolated, the more we thought it had potential.
First of all, it might contribute toward the culture of reading we’re hoping to develop here. Whereas the whole world is go- ing digital and visual, we think there’s still value in analog print media. The journal articles will be bite-sized, easily digestible chunks, readily accessible for those who don’t normally read much. Additionally, we hope to regularly include book recom- mendations and reviews that might guide our readers for fur- ther study.
Not only that, but we’re hoping the journals create a sort of “buzz” of conversation among the church members. There are certain topics that can be highly personal and hard to bring up (marriage, parenting, hospitality, etc). We hope putting journals out will enable our church members to start open dialogues about these issues - even reaching out to the authors to discuss in more detail. Plus, we get the added benefit of a growing col- lection of resources that we can use in the future.
One more thing - you may be wondering about the name of the journal: Incremental Revival. It’s a bit clunky, I know. The phrase came from our study of the parable of the sower in Mark 4. It’s a short and sweet story. The sower sows the word, he goes to sleep, the crops grow, and at the harvest time, he reaps a great harvest. The lesson that Jesus is teaching his disciples is that the ordinary, obscure, and seemingly insignificant acts of faithful- ness are what God uses to produce glorious and abundant fruit- fulness. That’s where the idea for “incremental revival” comes from.
Incremental revival means we prayerfully give ourselves to the small, seemingly insignificant acts of faithful witness, and trust that over time, God uses it for great and glorious purposes.
This is a valuable way for us to think. Grace Rancho must not be a flash of excitement this year. We want to be plodding faithfully, growing in health, counseling the hurting, equipping disciples, training leaders, sending teams, sending missionar- ies. And if we are to move in that direction, we’ve got to have a biblical understanding of how kingdom work happens. May this journal contribute, even in a small way, to the revival we hope to see in the years to come.
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You can find the most recent, and future versions of the Incremental Revival Journal here.
